Mui Ne - final full day

It is our final full day at the Mia resort in Mui Ne. It has been a wonderful 5 days so far. The resort is beautiful, the food is wonderful and the staff are sooooooo very attentive. If you don't finish a meal, they ask what is wrong....yesterday the men and boys went on a sand dunes excursion and they scrambled to get them breakfast, etc,etc. the only annoyance is the Mosquitos. Despite my efforts to usethenatursl bug spray, we are getting eaten alive. We have decided to call our son Ethan, and I figure this will be easier than calling him baby E all the time :). Our nights with Ethan have been soooooo rough. We almost cut our trip to Mui Ne and contemplated hiring a driver to take us backed to Ho Chi Minh city, and to a doctor. He is wonderful during the day, and happy most of the time, butat night it's a different story and we're atour wits end as to what to do. I have rotated him on children's Advil and Tylenol for almost two weeks, plus used homeopathics for teething and grief/loss, but nothing seems to help. He usually sleeps the first half of the night but then from 12 or 1am on, he is up, down, up, down. He is still congested, and I know this doesn't help. Instead of leaving today, we have decided to move out of the room we are in, and have booked two smaller rooms. This way, our older son can get a better night sleep, and one of us can too. If tonight is rough again, then the adult who is with him can switch in the middle of the night for some respite. We have greatness with respect to our Vietnamese passport and temporary Canadian one. It sounds like the are ready for pick up so, unless we hear otherwise, we are good to come home on Friday. We are soooo ready! None of us are looking forward to going back to the noise, hustle and bustle and food of Ho Chi Minh, but for us, it will only be for two nights. We have bought a few little souvenirs, but not much. We hope to go back to the mall called the tax center (Somerset has a wonderful city map that shows where all these places are), and to Binh Than market. Hopefully, we can pick up a few more things, but we want to avoid buying another suitcase as, already, we are coming home with a stroller. Advise re baby gear: don't bother bringing diapers or formula. I would suggest only some prunes and at least two containers of graduates, some Cheerios and some baby mum mums. I forgot the cheerios and only brought one box of graduates and mum mums. I want some for the plane ride home and we are running very low now. In all the supermarkets we have been to, they don't have any of these 4 items. We brought formula with the intention of transitioning here, but now I think we will leave that here and buy some that he is used to to bring home and will transition himation home. Well, baby calls again! Ta ta for now!

Mui Ne, Vietnam

Oh my goodness, we have seriously found paradise!! But allow me to digress a bit. We woke up with baby E at 4:20am in the morning, that wasn't the first time, but after he drank his bottle, he was pretty much awake and wouldn't go back to sleep. This worked out all right, as we had to be up by 5am to check out, meet up with the other family and head to the train station. Both families managed to get all their things in to one suitcase, plus a backpack and a stroller. We were all quite proud of ourselves. Off we headed in two cabs..the train station entrance was quite chaotic, but once inside the station, not so bad. I decided to use the washroom before we got on the train. Well, two problems..one, you have to pay for toilet paper and two, the bathrooms smelled like outhouses. Okay, I decided to wait and use the washroom on the train. Once we found the right platform and train, withou too much difficulty, we boarded and settled in. We realized that our one large suitcase was a bit of an issue. Thankfully, the men managed to get them up but really, two smaller suitcases would have been better. The strollers had to be kept by the door..luckily there was room for both. Okay, once settled, and the train was on its way, our older son had to use the washroom, so off we headed to checkit out. There's no other way to say this, but OMG...yuck! I'm sorry, but it was full of urine, wouldn't flush and there was feces on the seat. Thankfully, he only had to go number 1 (pee) and I decided to hold it until we got to the resort. While on the train, we came across a funny little Vietnamese boy. He copied everything people were saying, helped himself to people's food and drinks (even the iced coffee) and enjoyed helping himself to people's electronic equipment too. I must admit, it was starting to get anti annoying, but it was funny, in hindsight. The trip was about 4 1/2 hours, we grabbed two cabs right away and then were off to the resort. Our cab was a maniac, and I was sure we were going to get in to a fender bender, but we arrived in one piece, thankfully. As soon as we stepped into the resort (Mia Resort Mui Ne), we were in paradise! The front desk informed us our rooms weren't quite ready, but would we please seat down and enjoy some tea. Let me say we were not by this point! We sat down, I could smell the incense burning and there, in front of us, was a plat with tea, a cold facecloth that smaller of lemon and strawberry and mango ice cream in frozen passion fruit cups. It was so refreshing. Again, our older son needed to use the bathroom and what a difference! We washed our hands in what appeared to be a large copper bowl with lovely scented soap. Then our rooms were ready. From the outside it is a lovely grass roof bungalow. I immediately thought of my sister and how she would love it. Inside is a large bed with mosquito netting and the bathroom is set up so that the shower is actually outside, but with a wall for privacy. After a wonderful meal, with the best milk shakes and Mai tai's I've had, baby E and I had a nap. When we woke up, we headed out to the salt water pool and white sandy beach. For anyone planning to come to Vietnam...Mui Ne is a must!!! I am so glad we will spend the remainder of our time here. The last wo nights will be back in Ho Chi Minh to pick up paperwork and then fly out, but we will happily stay here until then. After all the buildup and adoption process, this will be some much needed R&R for all of us. We will post pics soon. Sorry, we have been too busy to download anymore!

Tuesday-Thursday July 10-12

Well, this has been a busy week, and a tiring one too. For starters, we aren't sleeping well. Baby E has a cold still and is cutting teeth so he has a fever too. Last night wasn't too bad, we managed to get 8pm - 4am...that's the best we've had in awhile. Tuesday - we had hoped to apply for the Vietnamese passport for baby E today, however, our rep was waiting for paperwork to arrive from Ba Ria. The judge wasn't available to stamp our documents on Monday so it had to get bussed to us on Tuesday. So, we enjoyed a day of R&R by the pool. We thought we might go out for dinner with the other family tonight, but our rep had to come and do paperwork with all of us, so it was too late by the time we finished up and the babies were getting tired and cranky. For some reason, I felt really nauscious, so had a gravel, and that helped quite quickly. Wednesday, the men took the two babies, along with our adoption rep and headed to apply for the Vietnamese passport. We anticipated they would be gone two hours, and it was exactly that. The Mom's stayed back with the three older boys and enjoyed some more relaxing pool time. After the babies napped in the afternoon, the two families decided to head out by taxi to the Diamond Shopping centre and then the tax centre. The first stop was a beautiful, high end mall. We actually ate at pizza hut first, which was a welcome comfort from home. Then we headed in to the mall. It has the store called the pet shop. This is a nice place to get pillows, blankets, purses, etc. all kid related. We also found the baby Gap and bought a cute outfit for baby E. Near the food court, there is a wonderful bakery full of pastries, donuts, pizza bread, french bread, etc. Then we headed to the tax centre. This mall had a section full of toys, strollers, baby gear etc. the older boys each picked out a Pokemon figure. On one of the floors, we found about 5 or more small shops side by side, where we were able to purchase ceremonial outfits for our babies. I'm sure we could find somewhere to make them much cheaper, but I am happy to have at least two outfits now for Tet. Thursday - today we met our representative and headed to the Canadian Consulate to do the paperwork for the temporary Canadian passport. We were a little slow to get going at 9:30am, and our rep asked us to hurry as the office closed soon. This surprised us, but we figured it was because they were on Canadian time! Right beside the Canadian consulate, is the HSBC...the only place, we learned, that we can exchange our travelers cheques. Ray had exchanged his on Wednesday, so I was able to exchange mine today. Afterwards, the other family headed to the coop for some more groceries, and we walked to the Diamond plaza for more pizza, and to purchase some items from the bakery. Okay, for those traveling soon...here are my thoughts... 1) I wouldn't bother bringing formula. We have decided to keep E on what he is used to and will slowly convert when back home. 2) Thankfully, E likes the cereal recommended by our rep...he does not like any of the baby food I brought for him. I managed to get some prunes into him, but that's it so far. The other family struggled more as their daughter doesn't like most of the cereal. But luckily she loves the beef congee the hotel makes for breakfast, and yogurt. Our guy doesn't like the yogurt. 3). Baby Mum Mums, graduates and Cheerios have been a hit for our son. 4). I wish I had brought instant oatmeal and granola bars. I very quickly am tired of the hotel breakfasts, and most of the cereals you can buy here are all sugar cereals. In fact, most things are sweet, I think that's why my stomach feels off...that and the heat, I'm sure. 5). I am happy we brought a box of borax and lavender oil and tea tree oil to wash our clothes in after visiting the orphanage. 6). All the adult and baby cough and cold mess/homeopathics have come in handy, especially the eucalyptus oil. 7). I am also happy to have brought two boxes of Aveeno bath powder. I have bathed him in that every morning and used calendula cream on his itchy spots, as well as Benadryl cream when really needed in the beginning. His skin is looking much better and he rarely itches anymore. 8). Some spare batteries for our older sons toys would have been good. That's all for now. We are all up very early tomorrow morning to head to the train station to take us to Mui Ne. We are very happy to have been invited by the other couple to share in this beach excursion. We willbe there for 5 night. When we get back, our passports should be ready nd then we can fly home! Vietnam has been great, but really looking forward to coming home :). We miss our family and friends, and very much miss our dog! Not much longer now.

It's Official!!!

We were up at 5:30am for a 6:30am departure. After a bit of a delay in getting started, due to students writing exams to get in to the local University (thus the streets were packed), we were off. We travelled from Ho Chi Minh city to Bau Ria (sp?) to the department of justice to get paperwork for the adoption, then travelled to Vung Tau to have the Director sign, then had lunch, then back to Bau Ria tO sign the official paperwork, take pictures and that was it. Around 2:30pm today, baby E officially became our son. We then headed back to Ho Chi Minh ci. It is just after 6pm and we just got back to the hotel. We are all exhausted as we spent the majority of the day in the car. We will post pictures soon, I promise!

The honeymoon is over!

Well, of course, we are stil in love with our little guy, but day 2 overnight was definitely NOT like day 1. Day 1 baby E slept from 6pm-4am and from 5:15am-6:15am. Last night, on the other hand, he went to bed beautifully, at 7pm...no crying, I just put him in the crib and he zonked right out. This gave us some time alone with M before he went to bed around 8 pm. Baby E slept until 1am, then was up again at 2am and multiple times after 4am. Ray was wonderful and was up with him most of the time. I got up around 4am and finally realized, he couldn't sleep or drink his bottle because of his cold. So we sprayed his nose with saline and suctioned his nose (for all of you who have done this before, you will know how much babies hate that!). Then we gave him some infant Tylenol and put him back to bed. Finally, he had another good stretch of sleep, and woke up around 7:15am. Oh, we gave him his treatment for scabies last night too, so finally we can relax a bit with the laundry, and not worry so much about bagging everything. We haven't had time to do much else, other than eat, sleep, take care of baby and swim in the pool. I have been thrilled to find some Canadian type food...even just spaghetti, cereal, bread, jam and peanut butter and bananas are welcome. I have been starving but getting tired of rice and noodles. I think I had sweet and sour chicken 3 or 4 lunch/dinner meals in a row. Tonight, I had peanut butter and banana sandwich. I know, sad but true. It was delicious!!! For those traveling after us...DO NOT bring travelers cheques. There's no point as no one will cash them. We brought a bunch and it's a total waste. The only way we can cash them is to open a bank account, turn in our cheques, wait a few days and then go back for the money. Not so convenient!!! Cash and ATM's are the way to go and you can use credit cards at the hotel and in certain stores. But mostly, cash is the way to go. Well, cross our fingers...one more day until the new ceremony date, scheduled now for Monday, July 9th (or for those in Canada...July 8th). As our new friends sharing our adoption journey said, a small part of you holds back from loving this child completely, for fear he might be taken away still. We will all breathe easier on Monday, once the ceremony is complete. Baby is has adapted so well...he loves his big brother, M, and laughs at his funny faces. M is so good with him, and even said he wanted to change his poopy diaper, as he felt that was his responsibility. We decided not to let him do that one, but will let him try just a pee diaper. As often as he can, M asks to hold or carry baby E. We are so happy to see both boys bonding already. That was my biggest concern, but I needn't have worried!!! No plans for tomorrow yet...I would love to find someone to make a special Vietnamese outfit for the adoption ceremony on Monday, however, that might be pushing it. I haven't seen anywhere to get that done. Maybe we will ask the front desk in the morning, and see if it will be possible. Baby E is soooo small...lucily some of the outfits we brought fit him, but others are too big. From the coop today, we bought some pants and tops for him that are a really light weight cotton. When ordering lunch today, the young lady asked if he was Vietnamese, we nodded and said yes. She even said he is very small for his age. But he is eating really well...he had two bowls of cereal this afternoon and is starting to drink more of his milk. He loves to eat food with his hands and enjoyed some watermelon and toast crust at breakfast. I tried feeding him a bit of yogurt and mashed banana but he wasn't too impressed with that. I forgot to mention, the first day we had him, he had some rice for dinner, and of course, loved it (they feed them rice congee at the orphanage)...but he had to get his hands in there. It was sticky rice and, well, you can imagine the mess he made! He also loves Cheerios (kindly donated by our friends) and sweet potato graduates. I hadn't planned on giving him so much new food just yet, but he seems really hungry for it. So, we are going with the flow. Everything they get from the orphanage is warm...the formula, rice conger and even the water. And by warm, I mean really hot! So, he hasn't been impressed with the baby food we brought for him. But who know, maybe he will eat it eventually. It's 7:30pm now...I'm thinking it's getting close to bed time, especially if we are going to get woken up again. Let's hope the Tylenol kicks in and he gets a good nights sleep. Oh, at leat we know M is not bothered by the noise. E cried alot last night, and M barely stirred!! Good night all!

It's feeding time

While we are trying to follow the schedule given to us by the nannies, and had planned to also treat him for scabies before bed time, baby E fell asleep at 6pm, missed a feeding and didn't wake up until 4am!! Ray is feeding him his bottle right now and finally, he is drinking it hungrily. Normally, he just pushes it away. Now that he is almost done, he is grunting at Ray...it's very cute. I wonder, after 10 hours of sleep in a row, will he go back to sleep? The schedule says wake up time is 6 am...we will see!

Good news, bad news

Well, we received good news and bad news today. The good news is, we and the other family get to take our babies back to the hotel with us today. The bad news is, our adoption ceremony has been delayed until Monday. We are frustrated with this, but try to focus on the happiness of bringing our babies "home" today. After the call from our adoption rep to verify this is what we want, it is a short amount of time before the nou nou's hand us a bag each with formula, diapers, a bottle of milk, a bottle of water, a face cloth, a toy and a cloth in the shape of an animal with his name stitched into it. The other mother and I cried..it was an emotional moment to be allowed to leave with our babies, but it was emotional also as we think of the nounou's, and the bonds they have formed. It is sad for them and for our babies to say goodbye. Back at the hotel, we tried to extend our stay at the hotel, with some difficulty with a language barrier. So, we called our rep to help us out. For now, we wait until the hotel sees what rooms are available for us to stay now until Monday. We also requested a cot/crib for the room and headed back for his afternoon snack and milk. After some crying, we settled him down. I managed to get him to have some sweet potato graduate stars, some yogurt, a little baby fruit, a nite of a baby rice cracker and a sip of milk. Luckily, he had rice congee before we left the orphanage so hopefully his tummy is full. Ray rocked him to sleep and successfully transferred him to the crib. We will treat him for scabies tonight and then, thankfully, will be free from having to bag and wash all of our clothes. Ray and M have headed off to the pool while baby E sleeps to some Vietnamese music we bought for him yesterday. Now, time for some reading for me! Wish us luck with sleep for tonight!

Day 5 at the orphanage - July 4, 2012

What a day we had today...first thing this morning, after breakfast, we headed over to get a taxi with the other family and, while we were talking a bird got hit by a car!  When safe, I ran out into the road, picked it up and placed it in a flower pot.  Hoping it would rest and be okay.  I'm not sure if it broke it's wing or not.  I pray that it is okay.  Later in the afternoon, I went back and was going to give it water, but it was not there.  I'm hoping that is a good sign.

Like yesterday, when we arrived at the orphanage first thing, Baby E was sleeping.  So we visited with the other babies and waited for him to wake up.  Finally, close to 10pm, he woke up.  I definitely think he is getting used to us...he doesn't cry at all when he sees us or when we pick him up.  We have successfully given him a bottle of water and also two bottles of formula.  It seems we have another small eater though.  He really has to be encouraged to eat.  M was the same but he just nursed on demand, which seemed to be every hour!  One of the younger ladies that works at the orphanage, was kind enough to go out and buy some Vietnamese CD's for us.  We paid her back and thanked her kindly.  What a special thing for Baby E to have to listen to as he grows up.  When we go back to Ho Chi Minh City, I would like to buy some more things for him.  Maybe we will have a bit of time to look around in Vung Tau tomorrow.  The days just go by so quickly.  Going to the orphanage twice a day, rest and eat in between...there's not time for much else.  It doesn't help that we are still going to bed so early.  Today, I observed a bit more how they make the rice congee they feed the babies.  They make the rice in a big rice maker and add very finely chopped vegetables, including spinach and garlic and meat...sometimes fish, sometimes chicken and sometimes pork.  It cooks for a long time and makes "rice soup"...the consistency is really nice for the babies.  I wonder if our rice cooker can make something similar.

After our visit at the orphanage this morning, we went make to the hotel for lunch and a swim.  Then it was a quick change and back to the orphanage.  But not before coming across a baby gecko that was partially squished.  The poor thing...it's head and front feet were okay but back legs and tail were not.  Again, I moved him over to a flower pot where I thought he might find food easier.  10 minutes later when we went to check on him, his head was down and he was covered in ants.  I guess that's nature...it just makes me so sad.  Things like this don't usually happen to me...it just makes me wonder why two precious animals got hurt today.  I know it happens every day but still, twice in one day...really?!

This afternoon was very nice...Baby E was awake, but when we arrived he was whisked off to the back.  I decided to follow and we were excited to see he was getting a bath.  It is so neat to see...the kids don't sit in the water...they stand them up against the wall and scrub them down from head to toe.  He was clenching his little bum tight and didn't seem to want to be cleaned there, LOL!  Then he was dabbed with eucalyptus oil on his chest and put in to a fresh, clean onesie.  I noticed it was made by the Gap so I checked the tag for size....if you can believe it, he's size newborn!!!  The tag says 7-9 kg's or 12-17 pounds!!! Yikes...I think I only brought a few really small items...most of what I brought was 6-12 months size!  Oh well, that's okay.  If I'm desperate for outfits, I can buy something here.  But I'm sure some of what I brought will work.  M was able to walk around with Baby E a bit more today, and they interacted and played more together.  It was very cute to see.

When finished, we headed back to the hotel.  Ray & M have headed off to the pool again, and I decided to check email and blog.  Might even read a little.  I would like to try to stay awake longer tonight.  Today is the first day I am really starting to feel more myself.  The heat still takes a lot out of you, but the pool and cold showers are nice.  I will, however, be glad to have E with us.  We can treat him for scabies and then stop bagging and washing our clothes.  Every morning and afternoon, the routine is to take our clothes off and put them in a plastic bag and tie it up.  We leave it for a few hours, or overnight.  Then, I soak it in hot water in the bathtub with borax and lavender oil.  It takes a long time for our clothes to dry though, and we are running out of places to hang them up.  We have one more bag to wash tonight, and then we plan to send one more load of clothes out to be laundered.  One more day at the orphanage and then, hopefully, the G&R ceremony.  Very excited to finalize the adoption...especially now that we see he is doing so well with us.

View of the baby floor from the orphanage courtyard.

Day 4 at the Orphanage - July 3, 2012

Okay, my body seems to think that 3:30am is the time to get up...will I ever adjust to the time?  Yes, probably when it is time to go home!!!

After breakfast, we met with the other family adopting from the orphanage and our adoption rep and headed for the orphanage to see baby E again, and for them to meet their daughter for the first time.  The Director and Vice Director weren't there when we arrived, so we all went straight to the babies room for a visit.  Baby E was sleeping.   Everyone took lots of pictures, including ones of the nannies.  Now, I would like to ask their names today and write them down.  The other family was called in to see the Director and soon, M was called in too for more chocolates :)  We slowly followed after and we all visited for a little bit.  Then headed back to see the babies.  Baby E was awake so we had a short visit with him, before it was time to go.

Our adoption rep took myself and the other Mom shopping for baby formula, cereal, yoghurt, diapers, etc.  The Dad's and boys all went back to the hotel for a nice swim.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we were quite hungry and M seemed tired and hungry too.  I considered not going back to the orphanage that afternoon, as I felt M needed a rest, and I had been up for almost 12 hours by then too.  But when M heard that only Dad would be going, he got quite upset and said "we are supposed to go two times, and I want to go.  If I don't, I will miss baby E".  Awwww, okay then.  I said we could go but on promises he would be good, which he did.  The afternoon visit was nice...Ray fed him a bottle before we left and M was able to hold him for a few minutes without him crying.  Every day we make "baby steps" and accomplish new things together, which is nice.

Okay...now I will try to load some pictures.  Oh...the ceremony is to be on July 6th, all going well.  Then we can post a pic of our new family.

This is a picture of the street, with the orphanage at our back.

View from the beach near where we are staying

Day 3 at the orphanage - July 2, 2012

I couldn't have said it better myself....this is was written by Ray. Hello, I'm sure when Carrie wakes some time during the night (like she has for the last few nights) she will blog about some or all of this, but since she and Matthew are asleep ( at 7:30 pm) I thought I'd send a bit of an update (I figure I'm good for another hour or two before I crash). Today was the best day so far with baby E.  When we first arrived at the orphanage this morning and I picked him up he did cry for a very short time.  He got over that fast enough.  We took him down to the court yard again and spent a couple of hours there.  That's a good place because Matthew has a chance to play with some of the older kids.  He comes by every once in a while and gives baby E a hug and kiss and then continues on with playing. Just before we left the orphanage in the morning (baby E goes down for a nap around then) we had a chance to meet with the director.  We still have many questions for her, but because our representative from the agency wasn't there (she was picking up the other couple arriving from Ottawa to adopt a little girl from the same orphanage) we decided to wait to ask many of our questions. Matthew did get a chance to ask the question Carrie and I have been wondering about......when do we get to bring him home with us?  She explained to him that we need to visit him enough so that he becomes comfortable with us and feels safe.  When he doesn't cry when we first pick him up will be a good sign.  From there we would progress to taking him for a walk outside the orphanage.  She thought that maybe that might be possible in the late afternoon....dependent on the weather and baby E.  The director was quite taken with Matthew.  They even played a short game of "catch me" as she chased him down the hall. We came back to the hotel for some lunch.  Carrie wanted to get some rest.  Matthew wanted to go to the pool so he and I headed there for a short swim.  That was the first time we had used the pool here.  After a short swim we headed back up to the room.  Matthew had a bit of a nap while Carrie and I mapped out where the shopping mall is.  We were told it's better to buy a stroller here rather than lug one here all the way from Canada.  You can get a good one here at an inexpensive price....and since we already had enough luggage to bring that suits us just fine.  We will likely go shopping for that and the formula the orphanage uses tomorrow. When we arrived back at the orphanage in the afternoon baby E was just getting his diaper changed.  Once he was ready they handed him to me and he didn't make a peep.....it was like he expected us to be there!  In fact, he only briefly cried once the entire afternoon....because he didn't like the way he was sitting or something simple like that. After a little bit we decided to see if we could take him for a walk outside.  The director was gone for the day so we asked someone else.   They agreed and off we went down the street.  There was supposed to be a park not too far away, but we never ventured that far because the rain looked like it was about to come down.  Instead we just went down the street a ways and then worked our way back (about 20 minutes or so).  It was rather windy so we put a hat on him that we brought.....it suits him:).  Baby E was fine with the whole experience and spent the entire time looking at everything as it went by.  The babies seldom get out of their room so this little journey was a lot of stimulation I'm sure. We arrived back just in time as the rain was beginning to come down.  We took him up to his room and spent a bit more time with him.  Carrie was holding him while the nou nou's (nannies) were making him laugh.  I tried it too, but didn't get the same reaction....at first.  I was finally able to make laugh for the first time......and after that it was easy. As he is becoming more comfortable with us we are starting to see more of his personality.  Our first impression was that he is a very sensitive and serious little guy.  As he opens up we are seeing more of his playful and inquisitive side. I think I've written enough of a book for now.  We're curious to see what tomorrow brings. Caroline - the only thing I would add is that we met the wife and one son of the other couple today. They have had an exhausting trip coming straight from Canada to Vung Tau. We also talked with our adoption rep and she helped us arrange for a new room, closer to the pool, beach and restaurant and with not so mant stairs to get climb. Tomorrow we all go together with the family to the orphanage where they will see their daughter and we plan to take pictures of the nannies. Later, I desperately want to go to the mall and buy more snacks. Last night I had plain rice, French fries and half a banana cake for dinner. I'm hungry but need things plain right now. The heat makes me feel a bit nauscious so I'm not feeling too adventurous with the food yet. Oh, and the kids at the orphanage are getting used to us, when we first arrived in the morning, a number of them came and clung to my arms, and then one walked off with his arm around M. They are polite and well mannered, but can be cheeky little monkeys, just like M so I think their personalities are a good match. M really enjoys playing with them everyday. I do worry about picking up scabies, or other things, but we bag our clothes as soon as we get back to the hotel and shower with tea tree oil shampoo. It's all we can do. I expect we will visit the orphanage for a couple more days before we will be allowed to take E back to the hotel with us. He really is getting better each day with us, and I highly respect the Director for ensuring a smooth transition.

Day 2 at the orphanage

We were surprised today, when we arrived at the orphanage, the nou nou's said we could take baby E downstairs for a walk. We stayed at the orphanage but walked around with him. In the morning, he still cried with us, but was consoled more quickly and the crying didn't last for as long. This was more fun and more appropriate for M as he was able to play ball with some of the older children there. In the baby room, he was getting a bit too active and starting to make everyone nervous. Overall, he is doing very well, but definitely needs to burn off some energy. M desperately wants to hold E and to carry him. So far, we have only let him sit with him. E cries, but I think it is good for him to get used to everyone, and it seems to be working. M was sad not to have more time to hold him, but he was so happy and proud of himself that he was able to rock him to sleep before we left. We were feeling better about how well E was doing with us, however, when we tried to feed him his cereal, he clamped his mouth shut. Then he cried. I tried to feed him a bit, but he just kept crying, so the nou nou took him and fed him his food. Hopefully, we can try again tomorrow with more success. Okay, intermission here...Ray has found a gecko or lizard of some sort in our hotel room....eeeeek, it's 4 in the morning, what the heck are we supposed to do? Okay phew, we managed to capture him and take him outside. Day 2 at the orphanage cont... After our morning visit, we headed back to our room. After several attempts, we managed to order a pizza to our room. After eating that, we all crashed and slept for an hour. When we got up, both M and I had a hard time waking up and M was very grumpy. But, that passed quickly and we were soon back on our way to the orphanage. It was around 2:30 when we arrived. E just finished having a bottle, and again we were told to go for a walk with him. Happily, we obliged. He cried a little but really seems to be calming down and getting used to us. Now when we transfer him between us, he doesn't cry anymore. Matthew played ball again, in particular, we played monkey in the middle with one boy. We were all having so much fun, but the boy would get upset if any one else joined in the game. Finally, he let one other little boy join in. At one point, Ray went over to play, and E whipped his head around to see where Ray went. It was very neat to see. Also, he is starting to communicate with us a little, as he did with the nou nou the day before, by making little grunting noises. He is also starting to really look at and study us. He loves to play with Rays nose and feel his stubbly chin, but I love when he just looks up at us. It's very reassuring to see him becoming more confident with each interaction. Later, we shared our first family hug. M gave him a big kiss and said he will always do that when we have a family hug. Awwww, do they have to grow up? Ray, M and I were sharing a bottle of water and E wanted some to. He was starting to get more aggressive to have a drink. I didn't want to give him any as I still have a cold, and also don't feel it's our place yet. We did ask for a bottle of water for him, and then we said our goodbyes for the night. We are looking forward to Day 3 at the orphanage. We were told we can ask our questions of the Director then. We are also hoping she will allow us to take him back to the hotel today or tomorrow. We certainly don't want to rush things, but it would be nice to bring him back to the hotel and to start establishing our routines together. Also, he is teething, and probably in some discomfort. We have teething gel and teething rings here for him. Maybe we will bring the teething ring to the orphanage today, and that might help his gums a bit. Today is the day we will meet the other couple adopting from the same orphanage, we are excited about this.

Our First Meeting

With our adoption representative and another family going back to visit the orphanage where their first son was adopted from, we headed off from our hotel in HCMC, for the the boats. I was glad to be taking the hydrofoil boats to Vung Tau as I knew this would be faster. We brought way too much luggage, and I could tell the people helping us with our bags thought so too. However, we made it to our new hotel. We had a short 20 minutes or so to freshen up and collect a few things to bring to the orphanage. This included a goodie bag for the older kids with stickers, pencils, sharpeners and balls with funny faces, a donation to the orphanage for supplies, a thank you card and money for the nou nou's and a rattle for our baby. With everything in hand, we headed back down to meet our group and we drove the short 5-7 minutes to the orphanage. Our first meeting - we went inside the orphanage, our older son was so excited to be meeting his baby brother. After meeting the Director and talking with her for a few minutes, we were allowed to go and meet baby. Ordinarily, the Director prefers visitors come before 11am or after 2pm to give the babies a nap and the nou nou's their lunch. So we had a very short first meeting. Our older son asked how we know which baby is his brother, there were so many all standing or sitting by the gate looking at us. I spotted a nanny with our baby and gently pointed our older son (M) to him. M went straight for him and picked him up. The poor little guy was scared and started crying, which kind of upset our older son. I forgot to prepare him a little better for that, as it is to be expected. But we said its okay and he tried again. He was a little scared of us as well, and of course our big camera didn't help, so we put it away for a bit. Ray and I held back just letting him see and get used to us. The nou nou's encouraged us to hold him and console his crying, so we did. They were all so friendly, helpful and understanding. If baby got too upset, they would swoop in and cheer him up and tell him it's okay. It's a bit of a blur, but at one point, I believe it was the Director who came up to baby while I was holding him and took his arm and said Momma, over and over to him. Almost as if to say its okay, don't cry, this is your Momma. We were about to leave but Ray hadn't had a chance to hold him yet, so he asked to hold him and I got a few pictures. We also asked the Director if we could take some pictures for another couple in France, waiting for their baby. After promising not to post pictures online, she agreed and showed him to us. So S&S, we will email you pictures as soon as we can get them loaded and emailed. Then it was time to leave. We returned to the hotel and met our group at the hotel for lunch. Our rep ordered a wonderful assortment of food; rice, spring rolls, grapefruit salad, oysters and cheese in their Shell and large shrimp. Being so close to the ocean, all the seafood was very fresh and tasty. We went back to our hotel room for a short 25 minute rest. At this point, our older son had been up for over 12 hours. We could tell he was getting overtired, but we were allowed one more visit to the orphanage, and of course, we wanted to go. So, we didn't nap but cooled off and rested, got a cab by ourselves and headed back to the orphanage. Our representative met us there later. This was a really nice, more relaxed visit. We were there for over two hours and were able to spend lots of time with him and the other babies. We bribed him for his affection with little corn puffs, and made fast friends with all the babies. Ours is certainly a little more reserved, or as Ray put it, more "sensitive", but he is warming up to us. One of the nou nou's suggested we take him for a walk in the hall when he started crying. Ray did this and helped calm him down, then I took a turn and he started to cry again, but I walked and sang to him and he again calmed down. Matthew was growing impatient for his turn so we let him sit with him for a minute. Of course, this got him crying again, but we picked him up and consoled him. Later one of the nannies took him to give him a bottle. At first I was going to leave them, but M followed so I though I had better go too. We sat back and took more pictures. Then he had some water and she put him down on the floor. This particular nanny seems to really make him laugh. I would like to learn her name. I asked if she primarily cared for him, but our rep said no, that they all do. It was kind of funny, but while we were watching and interacting with him, M would try to sit with him. The little monkey (the baby) would keep moving in circles so his back was to M. M didn't seem bothered by this, and kind of took it to be a game. The nannies encouraged baby to play with M and even put him on top of M when he was lying down. M found this quite funny. He stated he thought having a baby brother would be boring but said "actually, this is kind of fun". We got to see him crawl at this point, which we were excited about, and the nou nou was encouraging him to walk, with some help, towards his bottles. Shortly thereafter, it was nap time again. We left the orphanage after taking a picture of the formula he is on, and our rep promised to write out his daily schedule for us. We are starting to get an idea of what it is, but it will be nice to have more details. We watched another nanny rock baby in his crib and sing him to sleep. He was so tired. As I suspected, the rep said that likely our adoption ceremony won't happen until around the 5th or 6th of July, so we will need to extend our stay in Vung Tau. We wonder if the Director, when we see her again on Monday, will let us bring him back to the hotel with us on Monday. This would be nice. The couple we have been in contact with arrive on Monday. It will be nice to finally meet them. We have met her daughter...she makes the cutest little smiles to us. They will have their mandatory few days of visits with her, and then we will have our adoption ceremony together. Back at the hotel, around 5pm, we shared a few leftovers from M's lunch, and went to bed. True to form, I slept 7 hours and woke up around midnight. The air conditioning is really making me cough alot, so I woke Ray up (actually, probably the coughing did that) to get him to turn it to a lower setting. I will try to sleep some more...wish me luck!

Ho Chi Minh City

Well, we arrived safe and sound in Ho Chi Minh city. Both flights were great and it really was a breeze getting here. Sure, we prepared alot in advance, but I was thinking yesterday, I could do this again, no problem. The flight home with baby might be a little more exhausting though. And we HAVE to have a bulkhead seat or an extra seat for baby. There is just no room between the seats and it would be way too cramped for 12 hours. The only glitch in our travels was that a representative from our hotel wasn't there to meet us. Fortunately, a cab driver lent us his cell phone to call the hotel. Apparently, they thought we were coming in at 10pm. After checking our hotel confirmation, sure enough, it said arrival time 2200. Darn, can't believe we didn't catch that. So, we paid him $2 U.S. for the use of his phone. Probably too much, right?! Well, it was a lifesaver for us so it was worth it. The outcome was we had to hire a taxi to take us to the hotel. Fortunately, we asked the hotel what this should cost and then said no more than $10. Well, no one wanted to take us for that amount. They all showed us a card that said downtown was $25-30 U.S. finally, we found someone to agree to take us for $15 U.S. but then the wierdest thing happened. We started heading towards the cab and then he passed us off to another driver. We then confirmed the amount with him, carried on a bit further and then got passed off again! This driver was a smoker and I told him I am allergic (Carla you can testify to that, right?!). Right away he threw his cigarette on the ground and we were off. Thankfully, this driver did take us to our hotel. Our 5 year old son commented on all the safety infractions along the way though, lol. In the cab we didn't have seat belts, the people on motorcycles were carry young children and even sleeping babies, no helmets on the kids, two men we saw had tooth picks in their mouths and one was talking on a cell phone. Honestly, I was paying more attention to the road signs and wishing I had mapped out the route to the hotel so I could see if we were on track. I realized part way to the hotel that we didn't ask for the cab drivers ID and we were in an unmarked car (ie no taxi signs on the car and no meter). However, as I said, we made it safe and sound. After checking in, we had a look around at the pool, indoor and outdoor play area, restaurant by the pool and mini grocery store. We met up with a representative from our adoption agency for a few minutes, found out when we leave in the morning (it's early!) bought some groceries. Yikes, I think we paid too much, and then headed out in the heat to sit by the pool and enjoy the sunshine. As soon as we got into the pool - torrential downpour and wind! So, we stayed in the pool until we heard the thunder and then figured it was time to head back inside. I didn't realize how tired my son was. He was being good and seemed full of energy but we sat down on the couch for a drink and some snacks and within 5 minutes, I realized he had fallen asleep on me. So, as much as I wanted to push through until after dinner, I thought ok, let's have a nap and we can have room service when we wake up. Right! 7 hours later!!! It's midnight now, I have been awake for the past hour. Thankfully, everyone else is asleep. For how long though? I'm not sure. Well, time for another decongestant. I forgot to mention my cold to they adoption rep. I sooooo want to meet our baby tomorrow, but not sure if we will be able to with my cold. And I certainly don't want to pass it on to him. We will have to see what the rep says in the morning. Well, another 8 hours and we will be on the move again. Oh, and something really cool, the son of a former neighbour of ours is traveling in Vietnam right now, and we hope to meet up with him and his girlfriend in another week or so. It will be nice to see a familiar face in a foreign country! So far, true to what we have read and heard, the Vietnamese people are lovely. Looking forward to our travels today and to seeing more of the country.

Leg 1 of 2 to Vietnam

When we left it was 2am on June 28th. Only 11 1/2 hours later we have landed in Tapei, Taiwan and it is currently 6:40am on June 29th. So, we lost part of a day, but who is counting? We hope to see our baby boy tomorrow, we are so excited. We all slept for over 5 hours on the plane, which was great. Our final leg to Vietnam will only be 2 1/2 hours. That should feel like a breeze. Although we all seem to have developed colds. I am the most congested and the landing was a bit rough on my ears. we will be met at the airport in Vietnam and then head to our hotel, and maybe straight to the pool. At 5am in Taipei, it was already 28 degrees celsius or 82 degrees Fahrenheit! But we will take that over the rain and cooler weather we have been getting lately. We are all looking forward to getting to our hotel, unpacking and having a look around. For now, Matthew has found a little friend who is from Vietnam, and they are playing Star Wars Lego together. His English is very good, makes me wish I knew more languages!

Giving Thanks and Last Minute Preparations

Last night, my husband and I went on a date night, while our son had a sleepover with a friend.  We reflected on how lucky we are to have our son, who was conceived via IVF, and now to be blessed with another son through adoption.  We are so anxious to be travelling soon to meet our new little guy very soon.  I think of his birth Mother often and wonder what she must be feeling right now, or how she has been feeling over the past year.  I wonder how many members of his birth family know about him and I wonder who will think about him over the years, as he grows older.  We hope we will be able to learn as much as possible about how he came to the orphanage, to help answer questions he will have later in life.  Most of all, we hope he will be happy with us, and confident in himself. 

Today, we continue to work through our lists and finalize our suitcases.  We really want to pack lightly, but it's been really hard to do that!  I like to be over prepared, and I think I have bought out half the drug store and half the health food store with all the supplements, remedies, lotions and oils, etc.!  Every time I go out, I find something else that I think is essential to bring along.  My latest purchase is a snorkelling set for my older son....he is thrilled about that, and has been walking around the house with it on!  I don't do very well in the heat so I have bought cold packs, gel packs and a bathing suit and I plan to stay as close to the water as I can to stay cool!

A friend made a wonderful suggestion for my older son on the airplane trip to Vietnam.  She recently went to South Africa to visit family with her 5 year old, and she suggested we individually wrap all the items we have bought to keep our son busy.  She said to allow him to open one every hour.  I thought this was a fantastic idea!  I hope customs will be okay with it though.  But it will be neat to let him enjoy the gifts, one at a time, rather than all at once.  And hopefully, I have bought enough to keep him occupied!  But even more than that, I hope he sleeps for a good chunk of the flight!

Tomorrow night, our dog gets to have a sleepover at another friends house, who he will be staying with while we are gone.  Hopefully they all survive :)  He's a good pup...crazy at times, but a real snuggler.  I wonder what he will think of the new babe...probably will fill him with kisses and think....cool, another puppy to play with, LOL.  Yes, we will keep a close eye on both of them :)

Well, the birds are starting to chirp outside, and I think it is time to get started on the day!

Asia Bound!

In less than two weeks we are Asia Bound!  There is so much to do to prepare for our trip....our wonderful friends and family have offered to help, but most of what we need to do, we need to do ourselves.  But slowly, my husband and I are checking things off of our "To Do" list.  It will be a relief to get on the plane.

We expect that our Giving and Receiving Ceremony will be the 1st week of July.  We are looking forward to getting to Vietnam a few days earlier.  We plan to visit the orphanage a few times before taking our son back to the hotel.  This will give him a few days to get used to us before he transitions into our family, and away from all he currently knows. But we are sure with time, patience and alot of love and understanding, he will transition nicely.

Thank goodness for everyone who has travelled before us...it has been so helpful compiling suggestions and recommendations from other families.  We feel pretty organized and definitely ready for our big trip. 

Travel Approval

Words just can't describe how we are feeling right now...elated, excited, overjoyed, over the moon etc.!!!  We received news yesterday that our dossiers have been signed off on by the Department of Adoptions in Vietnam, and our paperwork has been sent to the orphanage.  This means that we can start to make our travel arrangements.  It's so hard to believe this day is finally here...it doesn't seem real yet!  I don't think it's really going to sink in until we get on the airplane.

We have been in touch with another couple travelling at the same time, to adopt a baby from the same orphanage where we are adopting from.  It's been wonderful to share this news together, to be able to help eachother and bounce ideas off of eachother too.  We are looking forward to meeting them in Vietnam, and hope to stay in touch for many years.  It will be nice for our children to have that special link together, having been at the same orphanage, at the same time.

Our older son is excited, but also a bit nervous.  He loves babies, but he says it's a little scary because "I've never had a baby brother before".  He has so many ideas of things he wants to do with him, teach him and share with him.  Hopefully, they will become fast friends.

We had hoped to have our flights booked by today, however, there is a time change between us and the travel agency.  The dates she picked for us were the original ones we sent her, not the ones we updated her with this morning.  So, that will have to be corrected, and hopefully we can finalize our plans tomorrow.  They are also taking care of preparing our visa's.

Now, with the animals/house taken care of, bags mostly packed, we are very close to being ready to travel.  Our list still has lots of items on it, but with the help of Dropbox, my husband and I can see/add to the list and also mark off things as they are accomplished.  We have the feeling that June and July are going to fly by, but we will try to slow down, breath, relax and enjoy as much as we can.

Update from Ontario - June 8, 2012

Well, we are really trying to be patient and let the process happen, but I caved and emailed the Ontario adoption agency this morning for an update.  Apparently, we are now waiting for Vietnam to sign off on our dossier (package of paperwork that we have prepared over the past couple of years).  This should happen soon, and the Director of the Ontario adoption agency is optimistic that we will travel by the end of June.  So this is good news.  We hope to have a travel date soon...it makes it so much easier to plan around an actual date!  Everyone has worked so hard to help us to make this happen and we are soooo very appreciative, and feel lucky to be working with a great team of individuals.  I also want to say a BIG thank you to all of you out there who have emailed us recently to lend your support, congratulations, and suggestions for when we travel.  It has helped us immensely to prepare for our upcoming trip. And, of course, to family and friends who continue to support us through this process, the ups, the downs and all the things in between.  I am so thankful for all of you :)

Article 17 Letter - June 4, 2012

Received the Article 17 letter today...woohoo!

Article 16 Letter - May 29, 2012

It's 5 o'clock in the morning and we are so excited to finally receive the email from Ontario that the Article 16 Letter is in from Vietnam...yaaaay!  We anticipate getting the Article 17 letter within a week.  That being the case, we could travel by the end of June.  Crossing fingers and sending out prayers that this will be the case!

New Pictures and Videos - April 21, 2012

Well, although we can't share these with you yet, we received new pictures and videos today of our soon to be son.  He is growing and looking handsome as ever.  We are all so excited.  Our older son is anxious and keeps asking when we can go and get his baby brother.  It has been 12 weeks now since proposal...but who is counting, LOL :)

Apparently, we are waiting for the Hague Article 16 Letter from Vietnam, which might be signed next week.

Vietnam requests our Acceptance Letter - March 21, 2012

Vietnam has requested our Vietnamese Acceptance Letter.  Apparently, this is a good sign that things are moving along!  8 weeks since proposal tomorrow!

Ministry Approval Letter - March 1, 2012

It's taken just shy of two weeks, however, we have our new Ministry Approval letter (after the recent glitch) and this has been sent on to Ontario and Vietnam.

It is almost 5 weeks since we accepted the proposal for this little boy.  We are so anxious to meet him and bring him home.  I have already been shopping and bought most of what I think we will need AND have started packing!!!  I know it's still early, but it helps to pass the time.

Ahhhh, a glitch - February 17, 2012

It's Friday, 3 weeks after our proposal, and we have received word from Vietnam that the child proposed does not match our home study...ahhh!  Why do these things happen on a Friday???!!!!  Luckily, and by the grace of our WONDERFUL social worker, we met with her, co-ordinated the proper wording we were missing with the adoption director in Ontario, and have amended our home study.  We emailed and couriered the documents to all parties that needed them and now we wait, fingers crossed!

The Official Acceptance to Vietnam - Jan. 29/12

Happily, we received our approval from the Ministry and our official acceptance has been sent to Vietnam!  Now the hard wait begins...will all be okay?  Will we get to adopt this little boy?  When will we travel?  So exciting, but so many questions right now too!

Our Proposal!!!! January 22, 2012

We are THRILLED to announce that we have been proposed a beautiful baby boy.  Currently, he is 5 months old.  He is considered to be special needs due to a blood test when he was born, but fortunately, subsequent tests show he is just fine!  Now we must work on reviewing his medical tests with local doctors and we need to push the Ministry for our official approval letter.  Over the course of this week, we will receive pictures and videos of this little boy to review and show to our doctors.

2nd Homestudy Complete - Jan 21/12

Since we changed provinces, we had to re do the majority of our paperwork, including rcmp checks, medicals, referral letters, etc.  The process took just as long as our 1st home study, unfortunately, but our social worker was wonderful, and very understanding/compassionate with respect to our frustrations at having to redo it all.  We moved mid May 2011 and we are so happy to report that our paperwork is complete!  Fortunately we didn't lose our place on the waiting list, as our new adoption agency works with our old one to facilitate adoptions in Vietnam.  Now we just need the Ministry Approval (generally takes about a week) and we are officially back on the wait list.  Referrals for children who are considered to be healthy still have not started in Vietnam due to their becoming Hague compliant, but special needs adoptions are moving forward.